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Christmas Letter 2004
Dec. 25th, 2004 12:00 amWell, it’s certainly been a year of firsts for us! The first year of life after Uni, the first year in our beautiful home, and the first year (well, almost) of married life. This year we have succumbed to nepotism and joined the family business, failed in our attempt to burn the house down, and as yet have no definite plans for divorce, so we feel that all in all we’re doing rather well.
Despite the fact that we saw many of you at our wedding in April, we did not get the chance to catch up with everyone as much as we might have liked. So, since this is the first Christmas letter we have ever sent, perhaps you will excuse us for rewinding a little and including the exciting events of the end of last year in our annual wrap-up.
Our graduation late in 2003 was the much-celebrated culmination of several years’ work for both of us, and we were both exceedingly pleased to achieve first class honours in our (identical) chosen degrees. As such, we are now both officially Bachelors of Information Technology (Hons I). Beyond the academic satisfaction this result involved, our equal success was also welcome in that it avoided a potential crisis in our admittedly competitive relationship. Whether any amount of grovelling would have prompted forgiveness from one of us for the crime of outperforming the other remains thankfully unknown.
After a short holiday on the Sunshine Coast after finishing Uni, we both started full time work as computer programmers at the software development company owned and directed by Hubby’s father. The work is enjoyable and rewarding, and gives us the opportunity to work with leading sporting personalities in the development of the company’s suite of sports analysis systems.
Continuing the crush of events at the end of 2003, we also chose this time to enter the mortgage market with the purchase of our first home. “Das Haus” as it is familiarly known (despite the lack of any particularly German influence in our lives) has been great, serving as our home base while steadfastly resisting environmental disturbances from severe storms to a severe lack of vacuuming. Into 2004 it saw a lot of activity, particularly in the lead up to…
…our wedding. Definitely the highlight of our year, we were honoured by the presence of so many family members and friends at our ceremony in the Roma St. Parklands in April. We were certainly not alone in enjoying the day, as evidenced in Lily’s record bevy of seven happy flower girls. It was wonderful that so many familiar faces were present to help us celebrate on the day, and we very much appreciated the generous gifts from all of which we have since made so much use. We would particularly like to thank the kind giver of a water jug which was sadly separated from its card. Fortunately this was among the worst of our concerns, as all the hard work paid off to make our wedding the wonderful and special day we had hoped.
Of course it was then time for our honeymoon, which we took in Tasmania. After a brief delay when our luggage was mysteriously infiltrated with rice, we were off to the Deep South and the rugged wilderness that only a holiday driving between B&Bs can provide. We’re sure no-one is surprised that our first stop was an historic lodge that just happened to offer broadband Internet access. Just try to keep us from our photos! From there we spent a very enjoyable two weeks driving around the island, before all too soon being drawn back to work and our wedded domestic existence.
Much to Lily’s disappointment, being married seems to have had no appreciable affect on Hubby’s tendency to play the various versions of what is known as TFG (that – er – silly game) on his computer. For his part, Hubby has noticed no marked improvement in Lily’s disposition in the early hours of the morning (any time before 10AM or her first Coke of the day). Ah, the joys of married life.
Having lived with Hubby’s parents until we moved into our new home, this last year has been our first real experience of running a household by ourselves. Perhaps one of the most memorable experiences was the infamous Pappadum Incident in which a temporarily unattended saucepan of oil decided to catch fire in a pyromaniacal bid to burn down our house. In the ensuing panic (well, you try concentrating on “Fire Safety 101” when there’s a two foot tongue of flame licking the bottom of your kitchen cabinets) the best option seemed to be to carry the whole fire-breathing pot outside and deal with it there.
Unfortunately, when a pot containing such a large fire is moved, the flames tend to lick back in the direction of the person carrying it, and Lily’s hand sustained substantial burns. In her surprise at the sudden pain, she knocked the edge of the pot against the bench and spilled burning oil all over the shopping and the carpet of the dining room. Fortunately the laminex bench seems to be impervious to fire (and much else) while the blessedly synthetic green shag-pile carpet was merely singed. Lily’s hand is recovering well with minimal scarring, and we now own a fire blanket and realise that we could have simply put the lid on the pot and waited.
After this unfortunate affair we have reverted to a Uni-student-like diet of freezer food – mainly lasagne, bulk homemade pies, fish-fingers, garlic bread and casseroles. However, we have postponed the inevitable onset of scurvy by enjoying the fruits of Lily’s toil in the garden. Early this spring, the vegetable garden was expanded and walled in by flower-filled and green-painted besser blocks. This taxing (to our lily-white programmer muscles) weekend’s work has since become known as the Mulch Affair, as Lily’s estimate of mulch requirements was exaggerated by at least a factor of two. The extra one and a half cubic metres of the stuff had to be moved off the driveway by wheelbarrow before work on Monday morning, of course, and we have only recently managed to clear the residual pile from the concrete out the back.
Despite (and at least partly due to) these small trials, we are very happy living here, and are genuinely enjoying the first stages of our married life together. We wish everyone a safe and happy Christmas and a fun and fulfilling 2005.
(posted 2006)
Despite the fact that we saw many of you at our wedding in April, we did not get the chance to catch up with everyone as much as we might have liked. So, since this is the first Christmas letter we have ever sent, perhaps you will excuse us for rewinding a little and including the exciting events of the end of last year in our annual wrap-up.
Our graduation late in 2003 was the much-celebrated culmination of several years’ work for both of us, and we were both exceedingly pleased to achieve first class honours in our (identical) chosen degrees. As such, we are now both officially Bachelors of Information Technology (Hons I). Beyond the academic satisfaction this result involved, our equal success was also welcome in that it avoided a potential crisis in our admittedly competitive relationship. Whether any amount of grovelling would have prompted forgiveness from one of us for the crime of outperforming the other remains thankfully unknown.
After a short holiday on the Sunshine Coast after finishing Uni, we both started full time work as computer programmers at the software development company owned and directed by Hubby’s father. The work is enjoyable and rewarding, and gives us the opportunity to work with leading sporting personalities in the development of the company’s suite of sports analysis systems.
Continuing the crush of events at the end of 2003, we also chose this time to enter the mortgage market with the purchase of our first home. “Das Haus” as it is familiarly known (despite the lack of any particularly German influence in our lives) has been great, serving as our home base while steadfastly resisting environmental disturbances from severe storms to a severe lack of vacuuming. Into 2004 it saw a lot of activity, particularly in the lead up to…
…our wedding. Definitely the highlight of our year, we were honoured by the presence of so many family members and friends at our ceremony in the Roma St. Parklands in April. We were certainly not alone in enjoying the day, as evidenced in Lily’s record bevy of seven happy flower girls. It was wonderful that so many familiar faces were present to help us celebrate on the day, and we very much appreciated the generous gifts from all of which we have since made so much use. We would particularly like to thank the kind giver of a water jug which was sadly separated from its card. Fortunately this was among the worst of our concerns, as all the hard work paid off to make our wedding the wonderful and special day we had hoped.
Of course it was then time for our honeymoon, which we took in Tasmania. After a brief delay when our luggage was mysteriously infiltrated with rice, we were off to the Deep South and the rugged wilderness that only a holiday driving between B&Bs can provide. We’re sure no-one is surprised that our first stop was an historic lodge that just happened to offer broadband Internet access. Just try to keep us from our photos! From there we spent a very enjoyable two weeks driving around the island, before all too soon being drawn back to work and our wedded domestic existence.
Much to Lily’s disappointment, being married seems to have had no appreciable affect on Hubby’s tendency to play the various versions of what is known as TFG (that – er – silly game) on his computer. For his part, Hubby has noticed no marked improvement in Lily’s disposition in the early hours of the morning (any time before 10AM or her first Coke of the day). Ah, the joys of married life.
Having lived with Hubby’s parents until we moved into our new home, this last year has been our first real experience of running a household by ourselves. Perhaps one of the most memorable experiences was the infamous Pappadum Incident in which a temporarily unattended saucepan of oil decided to catch fire in a pyromaniacal bid to burn down our house. In the ensuing panic (well, you try concentrating on “Fire Safety 101” when there’s a two foot tongue of flame licking the bottom of your kitchen cabinets) the best option seemed to be to carry the whole fire-breathing pot outside and deal with it there.
Unfortunately, when a pot containing such a large fire is moved, the flames tend to lick back in the direction of the person carrying it, and Lily’s hand sustained substantial burns. In her surprise at the sudden pain, she knocked the edge of the pot against the bench and spilled burning oil all over the shopping and the carpet of the dining room. Fortunately the laminex bench seems to be impervious to fire (and much else) while the blessedly synthetic green shag-pile carpet was merely singed. Lily’s hand is recovering well with minimal scarring, and we now own a fire blanket and realise that we could have simply put the lid on the pot and waited.
After this unfortunate affair we have reverted to a Uni-student-like diet of freezer food – mainly lasagne, bulk homemade pies, fish-fingers, garlic bread and casseroles. However, we have postponed the inevitable onset of scurvy by enjoying the fruits of Lily’s toil in the garden. Early this spring, the vegetable garden was expanded and walled in by flower-filled and green-painted besser blocks. This taxing (to our lily-white programmer muscles) weekend’s work has since become known as the Mulch Affair, as Lily’s estimate of mulch requirements was exaggerated by at least a factor of two. The extra one and a half cubic metres of the stuff had to be moved off the driveway by wheelbarrow before work on Monday morning, of course, and we have only recently managed to clear the residual pile from the concrete out the back.
Despite (and at least partly due to) these small trials, we are very happy living here, and are genuinely enjoying the first stages of our married life together. We wish everyone a safe and happy Christmas and a fun and fulfilling 2005.
(posted 2006)
